Through Any World
by Fuhrer Moogle
Summary: Upon discovering a strange sphere in Besaid, Rikku makes a trip to Djose to set things straight. What she doesn't know is her visit has long been expected. Will the events that day bring him back to Spira, or cause an outbreak between two worlds? RxG CH7!
1. Lament and Decision

**I'm new to story writing...this is actually my first one. I hope this one is okay!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in Final Fantasy, Square Enix, all that good stuff. **

**Note: Throughout the story I'll have Al Bhed spoken by characters, and the translation will be in parentheses next to it.**

**Through Any World**

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Vegnagun is finally defeated. Yuna and Tidus are together at last. Spira is once again saved by the former summoner, and Rikku is exhausted. On the bright side, Vegnagun wasn't all _that_ difficult; not compared to Trema.

"I practically _bathed_ in Hi-Potions after Trema..." Rikku reflected.

Rikku finally had her moment to avoid fiends of any kind. Whether it was a Fly Eye or a Flame Dragon, she wanted nothing to do with it. Although all this relaxation was great, it was, well...boring.

Yuna had Tidus to stay with, their own little hut full of warmth and hospitality. Having vanquished two of Spira's largest threats in three years, Yuna wanted to focus on her relationships, and maybe even start a family of her own.

Paine is rarely around. She bought a hover machina from Rikku (since Rikku needed a new scarf after an odd encounter with a Cactuar...) and set off near Bevelle in search of her own airship. Finally reunited, the original Crimson Squad wanted to reform. Though fully doing so may not work, with Gippal leaving Spira and all...but enough about that.

Brother and Buddy remain spherehunters...well, more like 'air-borne wanderers' since not a sign of a new sphere has so much as touched the Celsius.

"He may be a huge idiot, but I do kinda sorta feel badly for Brother." Rikku revelated. "It's not like I think he and Yuna should have gotten together! That would have been suuuper creepy. But I hate seeing him on the verge of tears every time he sees Tidus and Yuna. He won't even visit me because of them."

Anyway, I'm sure you all want to know more about Rikku now...

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Rikku lives in Besaid now, of course. But instead of living by the temple like everyone else, she lives in a nice hut by the dock on the beach. The calming beach, with its vast, rich forest and gentle breeze, compared to the boring, monotonous village, is a sort of haven to her. No lovey-dovey couples, hyper children, or fiends close by. As far as how she earns gil, Rikku decided to stick with building hover machina. She's had plenty of customers, but hardly enough gil to even buy a Holy Water. It seems that since everyone in town knows about Rikku's dresspheres, they assume she wants even more. It's great and all, but she just hasn't found her calling.

"Ugh...e yl cuuu PUBAT!" (Ugh...I am sooo BORED!) Rikku moaned as she paced around her room. The vacant hut had nothing to look at, since she was obviously broke. A bed from the Blitzball tent lay near the wasll, blankets hastily strewn around. Dresspheres stacked in a pyramid stood in a shelf near the small counter. A collection of dolls, including Moogles, Moombas, Cactuars, PuPus, and Tonberrys, were arranged in HP order.

Rikku lazily moved towards the set, swiped a Moomba, and threw herself onto her couch, back down. Looking through a small, circular window onlooking the shore, Rikku spotted little Vidina chasing a chicobo, with an anxious and exhausted Wakka behind.

"VIDINA! Chicobos can be mean! You could get hurt, ya!" his father said through staggered breaths.

After tiring of the endless chase scene before her, Rikku changed into her new Adventurer Dressphere (apparently a jogging suit with shorts, despite the euphemisms spoken from the woman who gave it to her), picked her favorite slow-moving hover, and left her hut.

"The weather is breezy today. Much better than the norm of blistering hot weather. I don't know how the Aurochs can handle the heat with practice every day." Rikku wondered while she passed the team.

While Jassu was demonstrating a new formation technique to his team, Datto and the others were planning an elaborate escape to freedom. Rikku chuckled to herself and made her was across the bridge by the waterfall. "...It's still gorgeous here...but gorgeous gets you nowhere if you're boring." the young Al Bhed sighed, pushing her bangs out of her eyes.

Continuing on, Rikku battled between thoughts of joining the others in search of something to do, or go somewhere else in order to avoid getting picked on.

Hoping for the best, she left for the temple.

"Maybe I'll do a few gauntlet rounds."

Parking her hover by the pillars, Rikku walked into the temple. The town was eerily quiet, the breeze inflicting a slight paranoia. Approving to herself that the temple was clear, Rikku cautiously turned to face the town. Walking backwards now, her footsteps sounded like trees collapsing in the forest. A wave of fear sounded through her body as she subconsciously reached to her sides for her twin blades, but only found a gaping hole.

"WHATCHA DOIN?!"

The booming voice made Rikku spin completely around, her legs giving way and collapsing underneath her. A feminine figure yielding two guns skipped towards her fallen comrade.

"YUNIE! Oui cly- (you sca-)...you scared me half to death!!" Rikku shouted as she rose to her feet, adjusting her headband and rubbing her knees.

"Sorry Rikku," Yuna chuckled, "I just felt like doing some morning gauntlet rounds. I was actually on my way to find you. Look what I found inside a Flan."

Yuna handed her cousin a round object with traces of yellow ooze dripping from the bottom. Rikku felt for the switch, and the sphere gave a brilliant glow.

Countless Al Bhed technicians were working inside the Djose Temple. Machina parts were scattered across the floor, walls were covered in oil stains. A few Al Bheds were forming hearts and stars on the ground with screws, while many men ran after each other, flaunting machina arms in the air.

"Drec ec knayd, hu maytan sayhc fa lyh tu fryd fa fyhd!" (This is great, no leader means we can do what we want!)

As the sphere switched off, Rikku felt the anger rise through her heart.

"What horrible excuses for Al Bheds! If they continue like this, all of Spira will hate us again!!" Her face began to feel heated, her pace quickening as she ranted.

"Rikku."

"-mywo vuumc, e lyhd pameaja-" (-lazy fools, I can't believe-)

"Rikku..."

"Gippal! Dra pek eteud!! Zicd fyed-" (Gippal! The big idiot!! Just wait-)

"RIKKU!"

Rikku stopped dead in her tracks.

"Sorry Yunie. It's just that they shouldn't be like that! If anyone else was to see that sphere, we would be in SO much trouble!"

Rikku left the temple and began walking back towards the village, heading towards her hover.

"Where are you going?" Yuna asked seeing Rikku sitting on her machina. She stood with her hands on her hips, head cocked to one side, curious about her cousin's intentions.

"I know you might be worried about me, but I gotta go fix this. I don't know what Gippal thinks he's doing, letting them act like kids."

Rikku started to rise to the top of the colums, and waved to her cousin as she began towards Djose.

"Wait, Rikku! Gippal isn't-"

"-going to be too happy that I'm confronting him, but he's just gotta deal!" she interrupted. "Pacetac...edc desa du cdynd so cduno!" (Besides...it's time to start my story!)

And although she was still worried, Yuna understood.


	2. Preparations

**Chapter 2 already! I'm on vacation from school, so I have plenty of time to write. I know the events of chapter 3 already, so expect to see it up between tomorrow and sunday.**

**I tried to add a lot more description in this chapter, and hopefully throughout this story. I want you all to be able to picture the movements and expressions coming from each character as they talk. So tell me how I'm doing on that, ok? Thank you guys, enjoy chapter 2!**

**Oh, and I'll try to fix typos. I'm using crappy Notepad, and my a and s keys are stuck with some gum or something. Oh the joys of little sisters.**

**Preparations**

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Thank God for good weather. The breezy winds seemed to be the only thing going well for Rikku, after being bored half to death, falling hard,  
and now all this crap with the Al Bhed in Djose.

Sitting on her machina, she felt her leg go numb. She hadn't even noticed, since her mind had been racing for an explanation as to why Al Bheds, no, people in _general_, would act that way. She moved her leg so that it was hanging off the edge, her other leg folded in front of her.

'I knew he could be pretty careless at times, but this just takes the cake for all time ignorance.'

Her mind would not get off of how weird of behavior that was for Gippal to go to that extreme of laziness. She felt a tinge of pain shoot through her palm at the thought. Looking down at her hand, she realized that they had been clenched. Fingernail imprints were proof of the pain she had felt.

"Ur puo...e sicd pa mucehk ed..." (Oh boy...I must be losing it...) she laughed to herself as she put her palm to her forehead. "I didn't even notice that I was still in this stupid suit."

She had been half a mile away from the beach before she turned back around. Just think about what the technicians would say if they saw 'Cid's girl' in a blue jogging suit without her weapons. She was ridiculed enough just for being Cid's daughter.

When the hover reached six feet away from the door, Rikku impatiently jumped off before it could even touch the sand. Fleeing into the doorway, she didn't even regard the stuffed Moomba lying ahead, and for the second time that day, she fell onto the ground beneath her.

"Ayyyyyy RIKKU!" she yelled at herself as she plopped onto her back from her sitting position, covering her face with her hands in embarrassment.

After a few moments and some calming breaths, she stood to her feet, and, slower now, began walking towards her dresspheres.

She reached her pyramid with no other accidents, and, forgetting her patience, began to throw the useless green spheres behind her as she searched.

"Yellow thief sphere...yellow thief sphere...oh geez. What's with all the darn green spheres?"

The yellow spheres were the ones obtained by Rikku during her journey with Yuna and Paine. Those spheres, obviously, were the only ones she had equipped with any worthwile abilities, weapons, or magic. The green ones, however, were the ones from her customers who either had no money, or didn't want to give it up, with worthless abilities like 'Quick Dress' and "Call In Sick'.

After her cabinet was empty and her bed a sea of green, Rikku had to search her mind for where she had put the yellow spheres. She paced around the hut, hunched over and scratching her head, again wracking her brain for answers.

"DUH! Mushroom Rock Road, former Youth League Headquarters. I forgot that I had told Yaibal to hide them for me in case they got stolen."

She clasped her hands together in excitement and ran again out the door, switching her machina to a faster speed.

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"What's wrong, Yuna?" Tidus asked her worriedly.

Yuna had entered her hut after Rikku left, and had been oblivious to Tidus being there.

"Oh...uh, well Rikku just left for Djose to find Gippal. I showed her this sphere and she really got upset. She said she was going to talk some sense into him."

She took small, hesitant steps towards the seat next to Tidus. She fumbled with her hands as she sat and explained the contents of the Sphere to him. Tidus sat with his head in his hands, absorbing all that Yuna was telling him. When she finished, Tidus stood to his feet and put his hands on his sides.

"Does she know that he's not even in Spira, let alone Djose?" he finally spoke after a few seconds.

"I tried telling her, but she wouldn't hear me out."

Silence.

Tidus walked over to his love and kneeled before her. She was leaned forward, elbows on her knees and feet tapping, a nervous look on her face. He took her hand from her cheek and put it between two of his own hands, gazing into her blue and green eyes.

"She's eighteen, not much younger than yourself. She'll be fine, don't worry. Once she discovers Gippal isn't there, she'll come back to Besaid for answers."

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Finally, Mushroom Rock Headquarters.

Rikku stood in front of the door with her machina in one arm. The atmosphere was pretty foggy for mid afternoon, Rikku could hardly see anything past the door. Still, she continued inside.

Headquarters was different without Nooj around and Youth League being no more. Not many people were inside except Yaibal, Lucil, and Elma, who were only discussing random topics. Rikku quietly sneaked over and poked her head out of the door, in order to avoid interrupting.

"Lady Rikku!"

Yaibal jumped out of his chair at the sight of the Al Bhed. The chair fell backwards at this sudden action, and Yaibal began reaching to pick it up, only to drop it again. Ignoring the chair now, he stood up straight and began to salute, only to stop midway after remembering that salutes were no longer used. Feeling embarrassed, he simply greeted her with a 'hello'.

Covering her mouth to hide a large smile, Rikku walked in and set her machina against the wall. She sat in the chair closest to Yaibal (besides the fallen one), and put her hands in her lap, looking at the three before her.

"You don't hafta call me 'Lady' ya know, I'm only eighteen." she told Yaibal, finally revealing her smile.

"Oh, I know, but you defeated Vegnagun! You deserve the upmost honors!" Yaibal triumphantly replied with a nod of his head.

Realizing she couldn't convince him otherwise, Rikku mentioned no more on the topic, but went straight to the heart of the matter.

"Hey, Yaibal? You remember those spheres I gave you to hide for me?"

"Yes, I certainly do, Lady Rikku. What of them?"

"Oh...well I uh, need to get them." Rikku halfway explained, not wanting to reveal her true intentions for needing them.

"Okay, no problem! I hid them...um..."

Awkward silence.

"Yaibal! Don't tell me you forgot!"

Yaibal let out an unecessary cough while he scratched the back of his head. Rikku stared at him from her seat with a worried expression, though he purposely avoided her gaze.

A few seconds passed before he spoke.

"Oh, of course!" Yaibal exclaimed as he faced Rikku's worried expression with his victorious one. "They're in a chest inside the tent by the guard."

"Thanks Yaibal!"

Rikku stood from her seat and waved to the others before picking up her machina.

"Goodbye Lady Rikku!" Lucil shouted as Rikku headed down the hallway.

"Come back soon!" replied Elma.

With a quick motion, Rikku stored her dresspheres and took off, finally, for Djose.

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"Well, I hope nothing's wrong." Elma said once she was sure Rikku was out of earshot.

"I suppose something must be, why else would she need all of those spheres?" Lucil said as she stood from her seat and stood by the balcony.

"Do you think she knows 'bout the technicians in Djose? I bet she's goin' there to get some free machina parts now that Gippal's gone"  
Elma shrugged.

"Yes, I suppose so." Lucil turned to look at Yaibal and Elma's worried and inquizitive looks. "I cannot believe Gippal would leave over something as silly as his reasoning. It really is not fair."

"Yeah, but he'll probably come back in a little while. No worries." Elma concluded as she stood up and began to leave for the balcony as well.

"But it's Lady Rikku! She defeated Vegnagun and helped in bringing the Eternal Calm. She'll be fine. I have faith!" Yaibal exclaimed,  
knocking over yet another chair and running out of Headquarters.

**----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

Prepared with her Thief dressphere, machina, and weapons (just in case), Rikku crossed the bridge by the temple. It was only about 6:30, but the sky was quite dark. Not a single star inhabited the sky, and some fog still remained. Not exactly the typical Djose weather, but rampant technicians weren't your typical Djose situation, either.

She slowed her machina down as she saw the environment around her. Her jaw dropped, she needed to sit down. A mixture of anger and fear flowed through her body, her fingers beginning to tremble.

Outside of the temple lay countless machina and parts scattered everywhere. She saw what it looked like in the sphere, but this was enough to make even Pop cry. The registration tent was completely torn away. The split desk inside even had machina remnants on it. The rocks providing the barrier were everywhere, Rikku didn't dare get off her hover. Not a single blade of grass showed through the many stones.

"Fryd eh Farplane ec kuehk uh raca?!" (What in Farplane is going on here?!) she gasped, not seeming to be able to fully speak. "I know they wanted machina and parts, but this?! What's the purpose of ruining EVERYTHING??"

She pushed her long bangs away and rubbed her eyes as hard as she could, hoping that somehow this was a dream. Her heart pounded loudly in her chest as she opened her eyes to the same depressing scene.

_'Of course this isn't a dream...'_ she thought.

_'It's an outright nightmare.'_

**Ooooh, what's going on? Chapter 3 soon!**


	3. Connection

**Blaaaaaahhzzzzzzz...sorry guys. I said sunday, and it is now wednesday! I had to go back to school today...TT.  
Anyways. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. This one was really the first of drama. Plus, I had planned some of this chapter a long time ago, and I finally got to write it out. Plus, I introduced in a lot of the FFX2 characters, and one of my own!  
So, thanks for the reviews! Chapter 3, enjoy!**

**Connection**

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"Hey. Come here a sec."

"Hello? Baralai?"

"...zzzz..."

"Oh God. He's asleep again?"

"I know. BARALAI!!"

Baralai jumped out of the chair where Shinra used to sit, startled by the woman's loud voice. After rubbing his eyes to adjust his vision, Baralai's first sight was the two before him, snickering.

"Baralai, you really need to stop playing online Sphere Break. That's the second game you've played where you fell asleep on your turn."

Nooj prodded Baralai's forehead as he teased the sluggish Yevonite. Baralai swiped at him in a childish manner in retaliation. He was right though, Sphere Break was mind numbingly monotonous to him.

"Alright Nooj. Uh...why are we in the Celsius?" Baralai asked confusedly, standing and stretching while viewing his surroundings.

Paine gave him a gaping gaze, while Nooj closed his eyes and smiled, on hand on his hip while the other scratched the back of his head. You could've sworm you saw a 'confusion drop' hovering next to their eyes.

"Are you serious, Baralai? You were awake when we boarded!" Paine said as she threw her arms in the air. How does he not remember?

"Heh...heh." Baralai rubbed his left arm in embarrassment. "I guess I slept it outta me."

"Boy...and you're the Praetor?" Nooj joked as he lightly slapped Baralai's right arm.

"_Anyway_...it got too foggy in Mi'ihen to be on hovers, so Brother and Buddy picked us up. He said they were heading for the Moonflow too."

Paine slowly walked over to the decorative red wall by the stairs. She took a deep sigh and gently tapped it with her palm.

"It's been a while. I sure do miss this thing."

"So when are we gonna reach the Moonflow?" asked Nooj.

"It'll be a day or so, thanks to this weather. Probably tomorrow afternoon." Brother answered as he turned his upper body from his seat in the cockpit to face Nooj.

"Tomorrow afternoon?! He may have left by the time we get there!" Baralai angrily objected.

"Luum ed, bnaddo puo. Oui kud yhudram fyo du kad drana vycdan?" (Cool it, pretty boy. You got another way to get there faster?) Brother joked to the young Praetor.

"No, but we all know Gippal. He can be a quick one."

Baralai pounded his fist firmly against the wall opposite Paine.

"Hey now, that's my baby you're pounding on." Buddy intervened. "She don't like to be hit."

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Rikku sat on her hover, venturing around to marvel at the catastrophe before her.

This was too unreal.

She slowly moved towards the temple door. Tears felt to be coming to her eyes. It reminded her too much of Home. What was going on? Why does this always have to happen to her and her culture? Did they do something wrong? Did she do something wrong? This was unbearable.

Rikku stepped off her hover as it landed on the ground. The temple entrance seemed to be the only area without any sharp rocks. Hands on her bladehandles, she gradually made her way towards the doors. As she began to push them open, a rustling sound by the rocks became prominent.

Rikku turned around and pulled out her blades in a split second. That same chilling feeling from earlier at the temple returned, only three times more intense. She stealthily made her way towards her hover.

"For some reason, I don't think I'm-"

"Alone?" a shady voice called out.

Rikku saw a shadow, a bit taller than Paine, emerge behind a piece of the tent. Who in Spira...?

Rikku didn't even want to finish her though. She used what strength was left in her shaky legs to run onto her hover and speed towards the bridge.

But she wasn't quick enough.

The sound of a gunshot was heard, followed by the clanking of metal and malfunctioning of wires.

_'I've been shot down.'_

The hover fell from underneath the girl's feet, causing her to fall hard onto the sharp rocks below.

"She should have known I was a sharpshooter, a modern day Irvine Kinneas, if you wish." the shady voice chuckled to himself at his joke. "It's a shame I only got the machina and not the brat herself."

The mysterious man creeped towards Rikku's limp body on the cold rocks. He crouched down and lifted her arm, checking her wrist for a pulse.

"Pity."

He dropped her arm from his grasp so that it fell over her stomach.

"The pathetic thing is still alive."

He picked up her body and held her only by the small of her back, so that her head and legs dangled.

"I suppose I'll just have to dump her somewhere to di-"

A clicking sound.

The man turned around to see the outline of another man behind him, pointing a large weapon towards him.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER."

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"Uhg..."

"Yuna?"

"...owww..."

"What...are you okay? That was pretty random."

Yuna found herself kneeled on the ground, hand clutching her heart and leaning over so that her forehead touched her knees. That pain...it was so random. She had never felt anything like that before.

"...Yuna?"

_Tidus._

"You still there?"

He was kneeling next to her now, one arm over her back as he pulled her hair behind her ear in order to see her face.

"Yeah. That was so weird."

"About how random that was?"

"Mmhmm. And the pain...it wasn't a physical pain as much as it was a spiritual one. It was like all my bad memories took form and yanked my soul, just for a split second. Do you...kind of get what I'm saying?"

"...Rikku?"

"...Yep."

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"You know the bed's over there, right?"

"Shut up."

"Hey, just say-"

"Shut. Up."

Brother shrugged in defeat.

"Women..."

Paine stood from where she had rolled off the bed. She rubbed her elbow and clasped her heart as she plopped back down on the bed.

'What the hell?'

"You gotta cramp or somethin'? Go talk to Barkeep, he's got remed-"

"E ghuf, yenrat, e mejat rana oui ghuf!" (I know, airhead, I lived here, you know!)

"Ugyo, ugyo." (Okay, okay.) he finally retorted. "You alright?"

"Yeah. Well it didn't really hurt. And it wasn't a cramp." Paine rolled her eyes. "I just had this quick sensation of every hurtful memory flashing before me and tugging at my emotions."

"Hmm...yeah, no idea what you mean."

Brother jumped off the bed balcony to the floor below. "It's only six in the morning, we won't land in the Moonflow 'til about three, so you might wanna go to sleep." He waved behind him as he left for the bridge.

"Yeah, sleep...I'll try."

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"And who are you?"

"I'll be your death dealer if you don't get your damned hands off the girl."

He cocked his large weapon again, as if to threaten the stranger.

"Well, well, well. There's no need for such foul language, now is there?" the stranger taunted. "You might want to get some help for that mouth of yours, if you make it out alive, that is."

"Shut up!!"

He held his weapon towards his eye as he yelled, pointing it towards his enemy. The shadowed man pulled out his pistols as well.

"Now, now. Are you completely sure about that?" the shadow man smoothly said as he put Rikku down and stepped forward.  
"Two against one, let us-"

A loud gunshot, followed by clanking.

"You seem to have miscounted. I only see one gun in your hands...you might want to get help for that brain of yours. How 'bout graduating kindergarten next time?" the armed man said with a slightly cocky tone. He began to move forward, his eye still looking through the crosshairs.

"I'M SURPRISED YOU SEE AT ALL!!!"

Another click, followed by several hollow ones.

"Dammit!"

"Out of bullets?" the armed man lowered his weapon and leaned against it. "Sucks for you. Your other gun is shot, too. Wanna give it up, now?"

The shadow man withdrew his gun and set it back in its holster.

"...Very well. For right now, this brat is yours. Don't know why you would do anything for her, though..."

The other man felt a wave of fury rise through himself.

_'Because she's my friend. I would do the same for any of my friends, and I'm sure she would do the same for me.'_

"...I will return!"

The shadowed man began to disappear into the darkness.

"You and the girl will surely get what you deserve from me, Gippal!!"

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Tidus watched hopelessly as his girlfriend ran rampant around their hut.

"Oh, come on!" Yuna shouted in frustration. "I KNOW there's one around here somewhere!"

She tossed the contents of her treasure chest aside as she searched, again unaware of Tidus's near presence.

"H-hey! Yuna!" Tidus said as he jumped over a rolling picture sphere. "What are you-looking for?"

"My CommSphere! I just saw it before I left the hut, and now it's just gone!!"

Yuna continued to worry frantically, but now she had given up searching and began to pace around.

"Uh...is this...it?" Tidus asked confusedly.

"Shut up!" Yuna replied jokingly towards the sight of the CommSphere. "Where'd you find it?!"

"Outside...by the center of the huts...where it's always been..."

Yuna gave herself a mental slap in the face.

"Why do you have it?"

"I was gonna ask you what it was."

"Fayth boy does it again!" Wakka shouted as he ran away from where he was evesdropping.

"Wakka, you crazy-!"

Tidus ran out, jokingly chasing after Wakka.

Yuna took the CommSphere from its place on the table and placed it on her lap. She let out a sigh of relief and worry;  
finally, it's found...but what if it doesn't work?

She brushed her hair away from her face and flipped the switch.

Blank.

"Come on! Work for me!"

Distortion.

Yuna now began cheering the CommSphere on like it was competing in a Blitzball game.

"Yes! Now give me a picture! Come on!!"

Finally. Picture.

Yuna faintly saw a bright red ceiling with an array of colorful tattooing. She thought she heard voices, but just the thought filled her with hope.

"Brother! BROTHER!! It's Yuna. Are you there?" Yuna shook the CommSphere like it would somehow help him respond.

"Not if Tidus is there, I'm no-"

Clank.

"Oww! Fryd dra ralg?!" (What the heck?!)

"Don't worry about him Yuna, he's a little dopey today." a feminine voice responded, though her image was unclear.

Yuna knew anyway.

"...Paine!"

**Fweeeeeeee. Long chapter.**


	4. Mischief, Mixed Paths, Miscommunications

**Hey, look, an update! I finally got to typing it. I had some struggles at first with what to do with this chapter, but I just sat and thought for a while, and BOOM! I have some great extra parts in this that's sure to make it even juicier.**

**And I'm trying my best to make Yuna and Tidus's relationship seem loving, because they are together in this story, and Yuna is not going to be dating anyone but Tidus. This one's strictly RxG (not yet, but soon, fellow RxG shippers!). I'm not a YunaxTidus shipper at all personally...I think it's just because Tidus isn't all that great in my opinion. (Hides from Tidus fans). But I'm trying!**

**Oh, and I made a oneshot! It's called "Y! R! Who?". It's pretty funny!**

**ANYWAYS. Chapter 4, thanks for the reviews!**

**Mischief, Mixed Paths, and Miscommunications**

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What a relief. Almost a year since she's seen anyone outside of Besaid, and finally, a few friends. Yuna missed everyone from the Gullwings - Paine with her serious and blunt attitude. Oh boy, that got on Yuna's nerves after a while. Sometimes, she would walk behind Paine, arms extended in order to reach her shoulders, a glint of anxiousness creeping about her eyes, her entire strength ready to shake her out of her wits and say, "GOOD SHOOPUF, WOMAN! LOOSEN UP!", as nicely as she can, of course. Well, maybe that was the thing about Paine...she brought a sort of balance between Yuna and Rikku, one that, oddly enough, kept their sanity alive.

Buddy, oh man, Buddy. He was nothing like anyone else on the crew, he always brought that comic relief, without being overly funny. He knew when to turn it off. Yuna still felt badly for not remembering him on the Farenheit. It was different then, she was too reserved to break her comfort zone, even though she is Al Bhed...or half, anyway. Here we go again, thinking about the past. Yuna shook her head to clear her thoughts...but the only thing that did was stray her hair in her face. She was able to toss it away in time to see Brother and Buddy frantically jumping around at the sight of a sphere below, really just a tip on the Youth League Headquarters that was shiny, while Paine shouted, "Brother grab the wheel!!" Yuna couldn't help but laugh at her hyperactive cousin.

As much as she hated to admit it, Yuna really did miss Brother. Sure, he got on her nerves at times, but she could always count on him if she needed someone to listen to her. He even learned English for her! Though sometimes he would say 'oui'  
instead of 'you', which made Yuna think 'we', therefore screwing up the whole conversation for the next five minutes as they deciphered the 'oui-you-we' mystery. But once she finally learned Al Bhed, all was well. Yuna still wanted to know why Rikku kept kicking him every time he saw her, though.

_'Enough reminiscing'_ Yuna thought, _'time to get back to business_.'

"Are you doing well?" Paine asked after settling the sphere problem.

"Well," Yuna smiled halfway and looked around the room nervously. "I guess you could say so. I am a bit worried, though.  
Rikku left town yesterday, and I haven't seen her since."

Paine gave a smirk towards Yuna at that statement. You know the one, the one that says _'Yuna, Yuna, Yuna. Here you go again with the I'm-the-oldest-and-I'm-tired-of-being-protected-so-I'm-gonna-protect-you-so-you-better-behave'_ one.

"Oh! Don't give me that smirk! C'mon, she's my teenage cousin!" Yuna pleaded with grand hand gestures.

"Yuna, you turned twenty six months ago, you're _barely _not a teenager yourself. I'm still nineteen, but I can handle myself."

"Yeah yeah, but Paine, she's eighteen. I mean I know she fought Sin at fifteen and Vegnagun at seventeen, but that feeling I got early this morning just spelled-"

Paine rose her hand to the sphere, the other scratching the back of her head in curiosity. "That feeling? Did you get that feeling around six?"

Yuna, moving her lips without speaking, staring upwards in immense thought, tried to remember the time. Six? I'm sure it was...

"Yeah! It was at six. I remember because Wakka usually gets Tidus up at six for blitz practice, but we were up early" She hesitated a moment to think of what to say next. Why does the time matter?

"Paine-"

"-like tearing out your soul, right?"

Yuna's eyes widened.

"How did you-"

"Same exact thing, same exact time, to me. Brother woke me up at six then."

Paine sat down and automatically put her head in her hands. She didn't care about anything but figuring this out now, that's how she is, always so frickin'-

"Wait, where'd Rikku go?" she asked, head still immersed.

"...To Djose, to find Gippal."

"But he's in the Moonflow now."

"Wha- so he's back?!"

"I guess...maybe that's why we had that feeling. Do you think something might have-"

"Definitely."

Yuna ran from her seat towards the side of her hut. She picked up a hover - a gift from Rikku - and ran back towards Paine. Excitement, fear, worry, and determination washed her face as she pulled her fist down (very Wakka-like).

"Paine, tell Brother to change his plans. We're going to Djose"  
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The Moonflow has always been beautiful in the morning, and it was especially beautiful now, particularly to the person who hadn't seen it in a long while. The pyreflies were out like normal, though they seemed more...calm now. With Sin and Vegnagun gone, not many Spirans have been dying. The Eternal Calm has so far been living up to its name, but it has only been three years. Spira will truly see Calm after seven more, when they all know that Sin will definitely not be coming back. It was just good to see that despite the chaos going on these past years, the Moonflow has managed to stay the same.

Gippal walked around the edge of the forest, by the newly built Travel Agency. You know that branch-off by the beginning of the forest? Yeah, it's over there. Residents of the Moonflow have known about it since construction plans were made, but Gippal still felt like a pioneer when he found it. He was even more excited to enter, he said it was 'like they recognize royalty when they see it'. But since Your Highness was tired of sitting, he decided to stroll around.

_'Hmph.'_ He thought as he crossed his arms, _'Everyone here is so boring. Don't even recognize any of 'em.'_

Gippal got sick of looking around eventually, so he sat down on the brick by the lake. He stubbornly stuck his chin in his hands and tapped his foot in impatience.

_'Geez. Stiffies. I'm sure someone knows me here.'_

He looked around some more and sighed in disappointment at himself. If only he hadn't screwed up his other eye. Moonflow might look a bit more interesti- Rin?

Gippal stood up abruptly and ran towards his fellow Al Bhed, waving his arms around.

"Rao, Rin! Ed'c sa, Gippal!" (Hey, Rin! It's me, Gippal!)

"Gippal?" Rin turned around and stared amazedly at his no longer missing friend. "Frana ryja oui paah?" (Where have you been?)

Unsure how to answer at first, Gippal put his foot on the brick, unlaced his shoe _very_ discreetly, and began tying it up again. Rin just stared down at him, confused and a little annoyed at his avoidance. After a few seconds of lacing, Gippal finally spoke up.

"Oh, just on my way to get machina parts. I had to go to another world to get one, y'know. The one I needed is pretty rare, but those guys were pretty gracious to me when I told them I was Gippal: Machine Faction Leader."

_'Yeah. That'll end his questions.'_

Rin blinked a few times, then scratched the back of his head. "Nhadala had every part invented in Bikanel, you know."

"Yeah...I know." Gippal said with a cough, still trying slowly to lace his shoe.

"So why did you not just go to Bikanel?" Rin asked with hints of skepticism in his voice.

Gippal finally had reached the end of his laces and was now purposely failing to tie the bow.

"S'one is brand new, very limited. Right now, only world leaders can get 'em."

"...Mmmhmm." Okay, so maybe he isn't lying.

"Say, you got any Al Bhed Hi-Potions?" Gippal questioned as he ignored his unlaced boot and stood back up, slightly hunched forward.

"Well, uh, yes, but it seems I have only one left in my stock." Rin answered as he searched his inventory.

"Great, I'll take it off your hands...5,000 gil, right?" Gippal took out his money bag and untied it.

"I'm afraid it's 7,000 gil, Gippal. These things have been selling so well, I've decided to raise the price." Rin shook the bottle in front of a shocked Gippal.

"7,000 gil!" Gippal sat down on the brick and poured out the contents of his bag.

_'Four, five, six thousand...ten, twenty...'_

"Damn. Just 6,900 gil. You gotta be kidding."

Rin gave a questioning look.

"Listen, Rin. I really need that, I mean _really_. I got 6,900 gil right now. I know it's not enough, but c'mon!" Gippal shook his money bag. "I'm willing to give you everything I've got. Whaddya say...?"

Rin glared at the bag, then the potion, then the bag again, and then Gippal's pleading face. Geez...

"Alright then, Gippal." Rin handed the potion over to him in exchange for the bag and Gippal's _'sucker!!_' face.

"Thanks man, I owe ya one! I'll buy you that part!" Gippal said as he ran back towards the Travel Agency.  
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Paine, Nooj, Baralai, Brother, and Buddy had finally landed, though not in their original destination. Brother had gotten a little miffed at having to change course, especially to the base where Gippal stayed, but when he heard Yuna say she was going _without_ Tidus, he was all on board. Paine stood by the crossroad connecting the Moonflow and Djose, leaning against the rocks, arms crossed and sword beside her, just like a battosai.

"No wonder I never left the ship. There's nothing to do here, and Yuna's taking forever to get here." Buddy whined to his comrades.

"Yeah, well that's Yuna for you. She is coming here on hover, you know." Paine said without moving an inch.

"Let's just wait some more!" Brother protested.

"It's been an hour! I'm sick of waiting!" Nooj raised his voice as he began to move down Djose's bridge road, only to be stopped by Baralai.

"Calm down, Nooj. She's right there." Baralai pointed over Nooj's head towards the floating former summoner.

"Ready to go? Let's get it over with, eh?" Yuna asked as she floated ahead of the others.

"As ever, Lady Y-"

"Baralai, we're on the same level. Just call me Yuna. I'm not better than all of you guys. Let's go." The six of them made their way across the bridge in complete silence. It wasn't really awkward silence as much as it was just an anxious one. They were all worried, Yuna and Paine in general. Hopefully their premonition was wrong.

"You ladies okay? Looks like you've seen an unsent." Nooj wondered out loud as he saw the girls standing completely still.

"Look for yourself, Nooj." Paine pointed towards the same disastrous temple.

The six of them all just stared at the scene before them. Paine just froze while an emotional Yuna covered her mouth. Brother's face could have been immobilized in an anime, Buddy just kind of grabbed the back of his neck with his hands, while Nooj stood open mouthed. Baralai, however, went towards Yuna's hover and stood on it.

"Come, Yuna. We should go check the temple." Yuna got back on her hover with Baralai and grabbed his shoulders as they took off.

"Check out the outside, everyone!" Yuna shouted from the doors, and then entered with Baralai.

The other four carefully walked across the rocks, Paine and Nooj towards the digging tent and Brother and Buddy around the outside of the temple. They searched for a while before anyone spoke. Paine let out a sigh of frustration at the sight of nothing but rocks and tent pieces.

"I got nothing. What about you, Nooj?"

"Well, I found a machina joint and some screws, that's it." Nooj offered the pieces towards her. Paine accepted them in complete confusion, machina parts among rocks...okay...?

"Hey! Paine! Nooj! Come here, we found somethin'!" Buddy shouted as he pointed to something on the ground. Paine put the machina parts in her inventory and made her way towards the others.

"What is it?"

"Look." Brother picked up the item and dusted it off with his hands. "A gun."

"A gun?! In the Machine Faction? What purpose is that?" Nooj shouted as he took the gun from Brother.

The temple doors opened and Baralai and Yuna floated out.

"A gun?" Baralai asked at the sound of Nooj's voice.

"You guys find anything?" Paine asked, heading towards the hover.

"Same as it was in that sphere. Gippal is nowhere to be seen." Yuna said, defeated. Paine gazed towards the temple.

"And Rikku?"

"She's definitely not here."

Brother threw his arms down in frustration. "I shoulda known but to leave my sister alone! She's always been sneaky, even when she was a kid!"

"We'll do something, Brother, just chill." Buddy patted his friend on the back. "Let's go back to the Celsius and think"  
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"Oh, Gippal! I have a sphere for you."

Gippal walked towards the counter and accepted a familiar green sphere.

"Thanks."

He left the counter and began to walk back towards his room in the agency. The sphere was just begging him to watch it right now, but it could wait until he got to sit down. Gippal opened the door quietly and walked over to the bed.

_'Looks like she's still asleep.'_

He sat down on a chair by the wall and looked on at the sleeping girl. Rikku sure could sleep for a long time. When he was completely sure she was asleep, he turned on the sphere. A familiar face appeared on the screen, long blonde hair and tan skin, obviously Al Bhed. She wasn't that tall; probably 5'6". Her voice came calmly to the sphere.

"Hey, Gippal. It's me, Keimyn. I hope you get this sphere. Anyways, you're coming, right? I'm tired of this place, I need out. Hopefully you get here soon so you can get me out. So, good luck, love you, bye."

The sphere clicked off. Gippal sighed loudly. "I'm workin' on it, Keimyn, geez."

Gippal stood up from his seat and made his way to the table nearby to store the sphere. He was just aout to set it down when he saw Rikku shift to her other shoulder, so that her back was towards Gippal.

_'Guess she's almost awake.'_

_'Who is Keimyn?'_ Rikku thought, clearly not asleep anymore. She felt annoyance and anger begin in her heart. Could she be-? No, no. She just is curious, that's all, right? Rikku suddenly shot up out of bed and punched the air in front of her. Gippal was almost sitting down then, and thanks to that, too. That sight of Rikku was just about the funniest thing ever.

"Fightin' some fiends in your sleep there, Cid's girl?" Gippal teased as he pushed her fist down from the air. Rikku shrugged and rubbed her arm in embarrassment.

"Yeah, I was on a roll in the Calm Lands too, 'till your loud mouth woke me up."

Crap. So she _was_ awake.

"Who's Keimyn anyways?"

Gippal hesitated for a moment, then went over to his sphere. "No idea. The desk lady gave it to me, said it was for me. Must be some fangirl." Gippal smoothly said with a dismissive wave.

"Fangirl, for you?" Rikku teased.

"Yeah, get 'em all the time. Comes with the price of being a good looking leader." Gippal couldn't help but laugh, and neither could Rikku.

"Hey, how you doing?"

"Oh uh, I'm fine." Rikku swung her legs over the side of the bed. She noticed a couple of bandage wraps below her knees, adding to the one she knew was on her stomach. "What happened? All I remember was hearing some creepy guy."

"Yeah, well he hurt you pretty bad. Well, the rocks did. Seems like he shot you off your hover. I ran him off before he did anything else, then brought you here."

Rikku stared at the Al Bhed before her, amazed that _he_ of all people saved her.

"Well, thanks Gippal."

"No problem, Ci-"

"-Rikku!"

Gippal let out a soft laught. "Rikku."

A few seconds of silence passed as he thought of what to say next."

"Listen, your hovers' pretty much done for. I was actually on my way to ask for your help to build one for myself when I found you."

"What for?"

"I need to go over seas to pick up...a new machina part."

Machina part. Right. Might as well just play along with him for now.

"'Kay." Rikku nodded.

"Really? Thanks, Rikku! You know we'll have to go back to Djose for parts, though."

"Back _there_?"

"It's broad daylight. The rocks won't hurt if you have shoes."

_'...I...guess.'_

"Okay, why not? Rikku tried to stand up from her bed, but her legs were still too weak. She ended up stumbling to the floor. Gippal smiled at her effort to be independent. He walked over to her and offered her a hand.

"C'mon, Rikku. You're strong, but you're no Sir Auron. Let's go, I'll give you a lift on my shoulders." He pulled her up and she climbed onto his shoulders as he grabbed the sphere.

"Hahaha. Decided to skip the fit, huh? Just like when we were kids. I would just scream until you were forced to give me a ride."

"Yeah, I figured we've both been through enough today to deal with screaming."

They made their way out of the Travel Agency and went towards Djose.

"Hey, you want an Al Bhed Hi-Potion?"

Rikku bounced up and down on his shoulders. "Those are like 5,000 gil! But they're soooo good!"

"I know! Can you believe I just found a perfectly good one laying in the trash in our room?" Gippal handed her the bottle.

"Thanks Gippal!" Rikku patted his head.

"H-hey, I only got one eye. Don't push my hair into my good one." Gippal joked. But Rikku would only keep patting his head as she drank, saying "Good boy, Gippal"  
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"Alright. So we're back at the airship. Doing nothing. Great." Nooj moped.

"Shut it, Nooj. We're thinking." Paine snapped back.

The group paced around in complete silence. This was the longest time Brother's ever been quiet. His little sister was missing, after all. Finally Baralai spoke up.

"What if we just - went to the Moonflow as planned? Gippal's _supposed_ to be there. Maybe Rikku saw him and followed?"

Awkward silence.

"Gippal!! Dryd kuut vun hudrehk fusyhewan! Cdaymehk yfyo so meddma cecdan, E ghaf-" (Gippal!! That good for nothing womanizer! Stealing away my little sister, I knew-)

The other four gave Baralai a 'way to go' glare.

"Sorry...I had no idea he hated Gippal that much." Baralai apologized as he rubbed the back of his neck. Brother continued to pace around quickly and wave his hands around.

"He's upset that Gippal went out with the girl he liked when they were nine. It's pretty childish, really." Paine reassured as she patted Baralai's shoulder.

"How do you know?"

"I overheard him talking to Buddy in Al Bhed." Paine laughed a little. "No one had any idea that I understood Al Bhed."

Everyone watched some more at the endless rant before them, before Yuna finally interfered. "It's okay Brother!" Yuna grabbed his shoulders forcefully, and he stopped. "Gippal is good to Rikku, I promise. He's a good person, ask Paine,  
Nooj, or Baralai. They've known him for a while."

"I know. Let's send out a sphere cast to the Al Bheds for Gippal and Rikku. They oughta know where they are." Baralai suggested.

"Great idea Baralai. Yuna, will you do the honors?" Nooj said as he handed her a sphere.

"Sure." Yuna sat down with the sphere. She turned it on and the Bikanel sands stretched far away. "Drec ec Yuna, yhouha drana?" (This is Yuna, anyone there?)

Lady Yuna ec lymmehk, Lady Yuna ec lymmeh, ribbo! (Lady Yuna is calling, Lady Yuna is calling, hurry!)

"Oac, Lady Yuna?" (Yes, Lady Yuna?)

"Gippal yht RIkku yna seccehk, Djose ec eh niehc, bmayca damm ajanouha yd Home, lymm ev oui vent dras." (Gippal and Rikku are missing, Djose is in ruins, please tell everyone at Home, call if you find them.) Yuna waved to them as she ran to catch up to the others heading to the Moonflow.

"Cu Gippal yht Rikku naynmo tet nieh Djose." (So Gippal and Rikku really did ruin Djose) and Al Bhed man with a tattoo stretching from the top side of his face to his temple said.

"E ghaf ed, med'c ku luhvens du dra udranc. Druca dfu femm kad fryd drao tacanja." (I knew it, let's got confirm to the others. Those two will get what they deserve.) The woman responded.  
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_'Oh great, the Celsius. Nooj and Baralai are here.'_ Gippal thought as he saw the ship behind a shoopuf.

"Hey Gippal, Djose is that way." Rikku pointed left from Gippal's shoulders.

"I know, but uh, your bandage is coming off." Gippal hid behind the shoopuf. "I figured I'd stop and let ya wrap it back up."

Rikku looked down at her leg, and in fact, the bandage _was_ coming off. "Ok okay. Thanks Gippal." She rewrapped the bandage just as Gippal saw the Celsius group leave sight and the shoopuf moved. "Alrighty, done. Off to Djose!" Rikku patted Gippal's head again, and they were off.

"This'll be fun, eh Cid's - I mean - Rikku?" Gippal asked as he walked near the Highroad intersection.

"You're lucky I'm buildin' you one for free, since you saved me and all. My hovers are quality work, y'know." Rikku stated with her hands on her hips very matter-of-factly.

'I really am, since Rin pretty much emptied me.'

The two went down the bridge path, not noticing Yuna's sphere that was still on. The tattooed Al Bhed yelled to the others behind him once Gippal was out of earshot.

"Djose! Drao'na kuehk pylg du Djose!!" (Djose! They're going back to Djose!!)

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**Geez. That took me forever to type. xD**


	5. Found

**FINALLY CHAPTER 5! I'm really sorry about the delay. I hate making people wait. Hopefully it'll be worth it?  
I wrote most of this after I finished my spanish final. Seriously, when I started writing the Al Bhed stuff, I had to erase so many times because I would write it in spanish instead .  
Ooh! And let's make a game of who can spy the Final Fantasy VIII reference in this chapter!  
No more stalling! Chapter 5!**

**Found**

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As small as Rikku was, she still wore out Gippal's shoulders. It was the least he could do for her though-she was obviously injured. As much as he was tired he was determined-determined to not show weakness, especially to a girl. Gippal slowed his pace slightly, hoping she wouldn't get onto him about it.

"Gettin' tired, huh?"

Almost as soon as Gippal's tempo slowed, Rikku sensed his change. I suppose hyperactive Al Bhed Thieves like her have some kind of gift for that. Gippal rolled his eyes and conceded defeat.

"Gettin' strong enough yet?" he responded with his strongest sarcastic tone. Rikku sat up straight, then began to study the bandages on her knee. They were still damaged...after all, only about ten minutes or so had past since she woke up. How frustrating. The first time she sees Gippal after the fusion of the factions, and she has to be caried by him to a Travel Agency. Even worse, she had no idea what had happened when he found her. She was so weak then, but no way would she let him see that. He would never let her live it down.

Rikku smacked him on top of the head.

"Hey, what's the deal?" Gippal rubbed his head and tried to get her back. Rikku kept hitting him, commanding over and over to _'put me down, you chicken-wuss_!' After a while of that he dropped her off at the stone borders on the bridge. She hastily jumped off and walked ahead of Gippal, ignoring whatever sliver or stack of pain she felt.

"I'm fine Gippal, see? Let's just get to the temple already." Rikku walked surely towards the temple with a slight limp, but still with determination. She turned around abruptly as if to prove her strength to him, but she noticed that he hadn't been following her. Instead he was a little farther back, sitting at the place where he dropped off Rikku with one leg bent onto the brick while the other hung over. He looked...almost depressed, staring out into space with a forlorn look on his face.

"Boy. I get knocked out, and I'm still not as spacey as you." she teased as she started back to him, hoping to raise his spirits. Gippal only gave her a quick glance before returning his gaze. Rikku sat next to him and sat on her hands. "What's up...? I was just teasing about the whole chicken-wuss thing..." she cast her glance from him downward to her swinging feet hitting the rocks. Gippal gave a small smirk and looked sideways at the girl next to him.

"I know. It's not that. Don't...don't worry about it, Cid's girl." he tried to slide by with a dismissive wave. Walking away from her, still staring ahead, he heard her cough loudly.

"Rikku! Ri-kku!" she lightly shouted with hand gestures at each syllable. Running towards him as quickly as her legs would let her, she stopped in front of him and spread her arms out. "Now what's wrong? I'm not letting you go until you tell me!"

Gippal pushed her right arm away and walked past her as if nothing had phased him. Rikku was fuming in frustration as she turned around, still keeping her arms outward. "Gippal-!"

He turned towards her and pointed to the temple. "_This_, Rikku! This is what's wrong with me! Djose is such a wreck!! I give in for once and believe that Spira will be okay and this happens!" Gippal began kicking the dirt underneath him. "This isn't the first time this has happened to me, Rikku! Does this remind you of anything?" He pointed again to the temple, but now directly at the rocks and destroyed tent in the debris.

Rikku, speechless, lowered her arms and looked down at the dirt. Kicking it slightly with her arms behind her back, she let out a shaky sigh and whispered "...Home."

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_'This is ridiculous. She's not even in the Moonflow either. How far could she have gone?'_

The group had split off into pairs to search; Yuna and Paine, Buddy and Brother, and Nooj and Baralai. Not a single area was left unsearched, not the forest, tents, or even the wagon where Tobli was often seen. Why a wagon of all places? I'm sure it would be of no surprise to you that Brother insisted to check _just in case_. Buddy didn't bother to impose, after all, she was his sister. Wait, _was_? Stop thinking that way, she's not dead!

Buddy shook his head intensively, amazed that he would even let a thought pass by that Rikku was dead. Nuh-uh, not our Rikku. She was too stubborn to die- wait, there it goes again! Buddy had to physically slap his head to rid of the thoughts.

"Fryd yna oui tuehk?" (What are you doing?) Brother asked his friend with bewildered eyes. Buddy froze with his hand still on his head, staring into the pyrefly sea before him.

"Uh, just um, well you know, pyreflies..." he responded as he removed his hand. Brother still glared, but stopped caring once Buddy began to walk away. He ran towards him, prepared to talk his mind out.

"Hey why did you just leave I was talking you know an you just kind of left you really should not-"

"BREATHE, Brother. A little air and punctuation never hurt nobody." Buddy said as he turned halfway to face Brother with an _'I-just-told-you!'_ look. Brother sat down next to him and pointed at the dirt near Buddy.

"Famm muug fru'c dymgehk, secdan 'E-nyhtusmo-tek-franajan-E-ku!" (Well look who's talking, mister 'I-randomly-dig-wherever-I-go!).

Buddy laughed lightly at his poor friend. "That made no sense Brother." He pointed towards the area where he was digging. A small orange fragment glittered through the sands, hypnotizing Brother its glory. "A sphere. That's why I'm down here digging like a typical Al Bhed.' he smirked as he salvaged the sphere out. The two gasped at what they saw next.

"There is only a piece?" Brother asked as he looked on at the broken sphere. Buddy searched the sphere for any clues.

"There's no switch." he said after he finished. "We should probably find the others. Maybe they found more pieces."

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Yuna and Paine finally sat down near one of the many trees in the Moonflow forest. Sunlight beamed down on them while monkeys scattered around. Paine was the first to speak up.

"So she isn't here either. This is great." she sarcasitcally notified Yuna with a roll of her ruby eyes. Yuna smiled at her pessimistic friend.

"We'll just keep looking. She can't be too far..." Yuna's eyes searched around the forest, looking for some way to catch her cousin. A monkey, overly curious at Yuna's ruffled half skirt, perched on its edge. Yuna's eyes widened in thought. "C'mon buddy." she scooped the small animal into her arms. It immediately curled around like a very small dog and laid in her arms. Paine looked at the animal as if it had just eaten an Ochu.

"Yuna...-"

"This little cutie can help us. He obviously remembers us, so he must remember Rikku." Yuna pulled out a pieve of Rikku's scarf (apparently Rikku has no idea her scarf has a tear) and handed it to the creature. It accepted it with an odd look on its face (for a monkey), but gradually grew attached to the colorful fabric.

"At least he likes it." Paine commented with a bit more enthusiasm. "So you really think he can find her with that?"

The monkey looked at Paine, still holding onto the scarf like it was his child, and gave her an _'I-may-be-a-monky-but-I-am-smart-ya-know'_ look. He ran towards the starting edge of the forest, stopped as if beckoning them to follow, and dove deeper inside. Yuna glanced at Paine with a smile in her eyes and the two followed.

The monkey stopped a little ways in the forest and jumped up and down atop a small mound in the dirt. Paine knelt next to it and began to dig up the mound while Yuna bid the monkey away.

"Yuna." Paine lifted a small glittering object to the former summoner.

"A broken, orange sphere?"

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Amazing. Djose Temple was exactly like the sphere had shown it. As precious as machinga is to the Al Bhed, how could they treat them this way? With all the parts laying around, Rikku could have built twenty hovers. Suppose that's convenient.

Rikku walked into the center of the temple slowly, absorbing everything around her. She hardly found a spot to sit with all of the machina arms lying in the seemingly lakes of oil. Bolts were everywhere, joints were mostly broken in half, the walls had holes as big as the Farplane...or close to it. Rikku set her head to her chest, supressing tears with her sudden burst of anger. She shot her head up and glared at Gippal, who had picked up a handful of screws and let them fall through his fingers.

"WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?!" she pointed fiercely at him as her voice rose with every heartbeat. Gippal only stayed still in his kneeling position, staring at Rikku with lost eyes. Rikku shifter to her knees, making sure to maintain her point.

"I CAN'T _BELIEVE_ YOU'D JUST LET YOUR GUYS RUIN THE TEMPLE LIKE THAT!" she stood to her feet and stomped towards him, still pointing at his exposed eye. Gippal shifted his weight to his other knee and glanced at her with sheer confusion. He finally stood so that he hovered over her, glaring at her finger.

"Listen, Rikku." he moved her finger away once it reached centimeters from his eye. "I wasn't _here_, I'm as surprised, and pissed, as you are." He sat back down, leaving her pointing into thin air. "So, we gonna argue about stupid crap our build our damn machinas?" Rikku lowered her arm quickly and sat as far away from him as she could while still being able to help him build.

"Just...take that base and start building an AFL490, but stop before you initialize its..." Rikku paused as she wracked her brain. She's built TONS of these, why can't she remember what not to initialize?

"...BGK component, Cid's girl?" Gippal interrupted her thoughts with his know-it-all tone. Rikku's heart pounded in frustration.

"Then...replace the BGK component with...the...3860G-"

"-Networking?"

Rikku started fuming inside, but maintained her outward appearance. "Looks like you can build your own." She started working on her own hover when she felt Gippal's eye on her.

"I only completed your sentence, Cid's girl. You were the on who helped me you know." He cast his eye downward and worked in silence for the next five minutes. Rikku finished hers quicker that she ever had before, and couldn't wait to get more out of Gippal.

"I've known you since I was four Gippal, and I knew you were lazy, but this is ridiculous. Not stopping your workers from DESTROYING the temp-"

Gippal stood abruptly, dropping the component he had just removed. "Rikku, I told you, I wasn't even _here_! I had to go overseas to get that part!"

Rikku was slightly taken aback by his sudden burst of anger. She stomped towards him and stood inches away from his clenched body, preparing to yell with all her might. "AND DID YOU GET THAT PART?! HUH?!" she shouted back, clenching her fists and staring straight up into his open mouthed face. Gippal looked away, trying to find the words to say.

"I...the-"

"Whatever, Gippal! You're such a pycdynt!" (bastard!) Rikku rushed out the temple doors with her hover, leaving Gippal behind her, speechless. The doors slammed shut, awakening Gippal and reminding him to finish building. He continued working, though clearly his mind was not fully on his hover.

"Damnit, Gippal!" he whispered to himself as he put in the finishing touches. "Why can't you just-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the temple doors swung open and revealed an armed man in its wake. Gippal dropped everything he had been working on and withdrew his weapon from his inventory. The armed man raised his machine gun and pointed it to Gippal, warning him not to fire with a deathly smile creeping on his tattoed face. Gippal looked at the sly man before him, having to blink a few times to confirm what he thought he had seen.

"H-Hyeja?" he questioned oncie his mind had accepted what he was thinking. Gippal stepped forward, dropping the tip of his weapon to the ground.

"TUH'D OUI AJAH SUJA YHUDRAN EHLR!" (DON'T YOU EVEN MOVE ANOTHER INCH!) Hyeja yelled as he cocked his weapon in threat. Gippal startled a bit, raising his free hand in defense.

"Fryd...ed'c sa, Gippal! Oui lyh bid yfyo ouin faybuh!" (What...it's me, Gippal! You can put away your weapon!) he pleaded with his old friend. Hyeja only held his ground, fiercely steadying his machine gun.

"Bid ed yfyo?" (Put it away?) Hyeja smiled deviously, his fingers toying with the trigger. "Ur, pid ed'c vun oui!" (Oh, but it's for you!)

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With no leads on Rikku OR Gippal, Nooj and Baralai decided to relax at the Travel Agency with a quick game of Sphere Break. Unsurprisingly, Baralai was basically owning Nooj when they started talking (Nooj with hopes of distracting the Praetor.)

"So uh...where do you suppose the others are?" Nooj questioned the studying Praetor as he tried to continue his 16-sphere chain combo. Baralai waited to respond until after he broke his 19th chain.

"It's been an hour. Knowing Brother he got hungry after searching and is on his way here." he answered as he watched Nooj rub his temples for a match as the clock ticked away. Nooj nodded, then groaned as he ran out of time once again. "Worried about the game?" Baralai teased as he broke his 20th in about ten seconds. Nooj nodded again, giving up his turn and waiting for time to end.

"That, and Gippal. He's gone missing while his faction is completely scattered and ruined."

Baralai blinked as the clock hit zero, finishing his last turn and winning the game. He looked at Nooj inquisitively. "_His_ faction?"

Nooh looked back to Baralai, his defeated expression changing to a realizing one. "Oh, yeah. Slipped my mind." he answered. The Agency doors opened, and Buddy, Brother, Paine, and Yuna stepped inside, Buddy and Paine carrying a sphere fragment. Baralai stood to his feet, taking Paine's sphere piece abruptly.

"A lead?"

Yuna shook her head, taking Buddy's piece and matching it with Baralai's.

"I guess we're about to find out."

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Rikku sat on the remnants of the dig tent, head in her hands as she thought of what had just happened.

_'I can't believe him! I understand what he's saying about not being here during this...whatever happened to this place, but he actually went as far as to yell at me!' _Rikku pounded her fists against the desk and shot her head up. _'And why does he constantly **lie **about needing to go overseas for a machina part?! I'm not stupid! I know it's for that girl Keimyn...' _Rikku put her hands over her eyes and yelled, "WHO THE HECK IS KEIMYN?!"

"Oui'na ycgehk dra fnuhk bancuh, Meddma Tacand Bnehlacc." (You're asking the wrong person, Little Desert Princess.)

Rikku jumped out of her seat, looking around everywhere for the source of that voice. _'Pops used to call me that...'_

A tall woman walked slowly from behind the temple, making sure not to let Rikku out of her sight. She had long blonde hair reaching mid-back in a thin ponytail, and she wore the typical Al Bhed bikini-clad uniform, only with ripped capri cargos and arm sleeves. Carrying a long, thin, lightweight sword with double blades, she pointed the edge towards Rikku.

"Sorry, but I'm not your old man." she smiled wickedly and lept for Rikku, strengthening for a devastating blow. Rikku jumped away with everything she had, barely missing the strike but landing on her shoulder against something metal and cold. She felt around the object, trying to identify it. A compartment opened, and out poured several yellow spheres.

_'My dresspheres!!'_

Rikku stored all her spheres just before the woman lept for her again.

"Oui naymmo yna y meddma dreav!" (You really are a little thief!)

Rikku quickly changed to her Berserker dressphere, pulled out her spiked shurikens, and swung it towards her attacked. The woman dodged the blades, but her own blade was hit, slicing it in half. She flew back, the impact of the hit being too much for her to handle.

"So pmyta!! Oui-" (My blade!! You-)

"Cunno, pid drec ec frana ouin neta ahtc." (Sorry, but this is where your ride ends.) Rikku ran back to the temple, hoping Gippal was okay.

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Gippal froze, amazed at how much Hyeja had changed. He was almost his total opposite from childhood; a tattoo extending beside his temple, his clothes layered in black and grey, armed with a weapon with intention to kill.

"Hyeja...fryd yna oui tuehk?" (Hyeja...what are you doing?) Gippal questioned, eyes glazed with curiosity.

"Oui femm kad fryd oui tacanja vun tuehk drec du Djose!" (You will get what you deserve for doing this to Djose!) Hyeja pulled the trigger, the sound of the bullet echoing through the temple. It reached two feet away from Gippal's chest before it bounced back, knocking Hyeja over from surprise. Rikku stood in front of Gippal, lowering her dented shuriken.

"Rikku, you- you-"

"-Saved me, right?"

Gippal smirked, tussling Rikku's hair in thanks. "Let's get the heck outta here, Cid's girl. I don't want this guy coming back for more." Gippal handed Rikku her hover before ounting his own and speeding out, Rikku's cries of "RI-KKU!" echoing as they left the temple.

"I think I'm recovering pretty well." Rikku bragged as they passed over the woman's weak body.

"Why?" Gippal asked.

Rikku pointed behind her to the girl next to the broken double blade, waiting for Gippal's response.

"You did _that_?" he exclaimed with wide eys.

"I _did _defeat Sin _and_ Vegnagun ya know. And she wouldn't stop attacking me, so I kinda had to."

Gippal laughed, staring at Rikku's outfit. "Guess that explains that fashion statement, huh?"

Rikku gasped, covering herself with her arms, forgetting she was still in her Berserker dressphere. She quickly threw on her covering White Mage dressphere, pulling her hood on and hiding her face and everything else from Gippal, who could only continue laughing as they sped away.

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"Ihcina."

Hyeja crawled towards his friend, dragging a CommSphere with him.

"We need to tell our boss." he squeaked out, breaking his Al Bhed. Ihcina nodded, switching on the sphere. The sands of Bikanel stretched out, countless Al Bhed ran around and built everywhere. A medium-height man stomped forward towards his sphere, anger obviously imminent on his face as he tried to talk while fixing his pistols.

"Cu?" (So?)

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**Portraying Nooj is kind hard, eh?**


	6. No Control

**Okay. I finally have Chapter 6 up. This one was crazy for me to write, because I kept running into mental walls. But, I think I got it.**

**Chapter 7 will be up on Sunday, March 11...because it's my birthday!! xD**

**No more delays. Enjoy!**

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_'Shut up...'_

The room swirled around viciously, walls, tables, people in the Agency blending together seamlessly, voices creating a slur of loud words.

_'Oh my Yevon...'  
'Are you okay-?'  
'Get up-'_

_'Shut **up**...'_

_'Esuna!'  
'That won't work-!'  
'Oh Yevon-'  
'You killed Yevon!'  
_

_'SHUT. UP.'_

The voices were too much to handle, too loud to process, too conglomerated to understand. Why couldn't they all just _shut_-

Paine began to attempt rising from the floor where she knelt, having fallen earlier. However, despite her fierce determination to regain composure, her body would not allow her to, everything buckling as if the weight of the world were on her. Like before, her heart pulled every direction, causing her to lose emotional control. However, she couldn't feel any physical pain. And why wasn't Yuna like this? Didn't she say she had these too?

_'Stop staring at me!'_ a jovial voice said suddenly. Paine shot her head up, looking around at the crew ahead of her trying to identify the speaker.

_'How can I? You're all covered up!' _a new voice said, this time a masculine one. Paine's mind raced again, noticing herself that neither Buddy, Brother, Baralai, nor Nooj had even moved their mouths, only staring at her concernedly.

_'And I'm gonna stay that way, oui pimmo!'_ (you bully!) the same jovial voice returned. Paine could see glimpses of the girl, apparently in a White Mage dressphere. The girl rubbed her elbow subconciously, eventually seeing that her sleeve was stained with a small amount of crimson. She gasped at the sight, jumping to push up her sleeve and quickly wrap the wound.

_'It's Rikku!'_

Paine snapped out of her reverie at the recognition of the girl, scrambling up to return to the group.

"Paine!" Yuna clapped her hands together once and ran to her friend, smiling in gratitude and tightly hugging her. Paine grunted at the impact of the hug, smirking a bit at Yuna's large reaction.

"You have no idea how worried we were! We kept talking to you, trying to get you up, but you wouldn't respond!" she closed her eyes tightly, increasing her grip even tighter. Paine still kept her arms down, not returning Yuna's hug out of her determination to focus on what she witnessed.

"Yuna." Paine removed her from her hug and left her hands on Yuna's shoulders, staring at her intently. Yuna raised her eyebrows in worry, seeing Paine's disheveled appearance and intent expression.

"I _saw_ Rikku, Yuna. Just now."

Yuna stepped back, Paine's arms falling loosely from her shoulders. She crossed her arms, one hand reaching up to cover her mouth in shock.

"Did you just have the spirit thing?"

Paine blinked quickly. "...I think so."

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_"Oh my God."_

_Men carrying large weapons ran crazily around with their squads. Nearly every man in the dark den had been saying those words. Signing up for the Crimson Squad was supposed to mean helping Spira, and every person who joined strongly believed in that. Now that they had all been assigned here, however, everyone seemed to go against all that they stood for._

_Crimson Squad G was the last squad to enter the den on their first assignment as members. Their sphere recorder stood away as he caught every devastating moment on record. Squad leaders killing their own members, men hallucinating and panicking, recorders trying desperately to escape the den, only to be shot or kill themselves on the way. He could only watch as men ran rampantly in the dark, screaming loudly and preparing their weapons._

_"Oh. My God...Shiipa...can you, can you _believe_ this?" Shiipa's fellow squad member Vunkeja asked, his tan face a ghostly white with fear. Shiipa could only watch on as his squad laid lifeless on the cold, winding ground, his other friends claiming victims of their own._

_"That's it! I'm gonna go put some sense into everyone!" Vunkeja rose quickly and ran into the crowd of squadrons, ignoring Shiipa's shouts of protest. Dodging the many guns pointed at him and jumping over corpses on his way, Vunkeja spotted the only other person who looked sane._

_"Gippal!"_

_Gippal hid away from Vunkeja, aiming his weapon at him with an unsteady hand. After Vunkeja's proof of not intending to hurt him, Gippal lowered his weapon and pulled Vunkeja near him._

_"Holy Yevon, man, what the hell's goin' on?" Gippal asked Vunkeja while he witnessed even more insanity. He tried furiously to fix his disheveled blonde hair as he spoke, the ends covering his eye from it's drooping._

_"I dunno Gippal, but my squad's all dead. I can't handle it anymore. All I got left is Shii-" Vunkeja was cut off by the sudden burst of gunshots, following with Shiipa's stiff body falling to the ground, every ounce of life left in the young recorder vanishing. He was trying to reach Vunkeja, but was stopped short with a round of bullets fired by some hallucinating men._

_"SHIIPA!!!" Vunkeja ran to his friend, tears flowing dangerously from his eyes. The men who shot Shiipa ran away, leaving only Shiipa, Vunkeja, and Gippal. Vunkeja threw himself onto his friend, shaking him furiously._

_"SHIIPA! SHIIPA- SHIIPA GET UP! PLEASE, GET UP!!" Vunkeja cried, tears flowing like a river. Vunkeja kept shaking his friend, until finally he shook so much that Shiipa's hand fell from his heart, revealing the blood wound. Vunkeja knew from that that Shiipa would not get up. He slammed his hands to the ground and screamed at the top of his lungs, not caring any longer about the events around him._

_Gippal looked on at the two friends before him with deep sorrow, dropping his weapon and linking his hands onto his head._

_A swarm of pyreflies engulfed the area where the three men were, their lights glowing brightly and ending whatever the men were doing. Gippal closed his eyes tightly to avoid the light, but Vunkeja could not, becoming transfixed in it. Vunkeja screamed lougly again._

_"VUNKEJA, STOP!" Gippal yelled, keeping his eyes shut and covering his ears. Eventually Vunkeja stopped yelling, and Gippal pulled his hands away from his ears, reaching for his weapon once the pyreflies scattered. The silence, however, would not last lond._

_"SHIIPA!!!" continued Vunkeja.  
"VUNKEJA!" Gippal returned, opening his eyes.  
"SHI- SHIIPA!!"  
"VUNKEJA!!!!"  
"SHIIP-"_

_Gunshot, follwoed by Vunkeja's body slumping over Shiipa's, and an armed Gippal running away._

_Vunkeja was dead._

_------_

Najahka shot up out of bed suddenly, a cold sweat dripping down his face. He frantically looked around him, confirming that he was still in Bikanel. Rising from his bed, he made his way to a chair where his shirt was, pulling it over his thin upper body. He looked out the window at the long-stretching desert, the darkness of the night making the sands themselves darker. It reminded him of his dream; the one that haunted him since it happened, the one that ruined his life.

"IHCINA! HYEJA!" Najahka yelled, suddenly overcome with fury. Hyeja quickly stumbled into the room, since he lived right next to his boss. Hyeja fell against the door frame, grasping onto it to keep his balance. Ihcina, however, walked in slowly, fixing her long hair and yawning. Seeing Hyeja, Ihcina rolled her eyes and looked to her boss.

"Oac, Najahka?" (Yes, Najahka?)

"E ryt dra tnars rkreh." (I had the dream again.) he said bitterly. Ihcina's eyes widened.

"Dra uha fedr Gippal?" (The one with Gippal?).

"Oac, yht E's kaddehk res pylf, drec desa vun cina." (Yes, and I'm getting him back, this time for real). Najahka clenched his fists tightly.

"Ajanodrehk fa'ja paah tuehk du Gippal...tu du dra kena." (Everything we've been doing to Gippal...do to the girl).

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"Spirit _thing_?" Nooj asked Yuna with a raised eyevrow. Yuna smiled warily, turning to Nooj and rubbing the back of her neck.

"It's...a long story. Brother'll tell you." At the mention of his name coming out of Yuna's mouth, Brother jumped in the air and ran towards Nooj, talking a million miles a minute. Nooj grimaced a little while he attempted to comprehend.

"Um, ladies," Baralai waved the newly repaired orange sphere above his head, "the sphere?"

Brother, at Nooj's gratitude, stopped talking so that he could watch the sphere along with everyone else. As the other five crowded around Baralai, he turned on the switch, the sphere glowing a brilliant orange.

A young girl's face appeared on the screen, she had blonde hair extending between her shoulder and elbow, cut in choppy layers with side swept bangs. She was naturally tan, proof of her Al Bhed heritage. She smiled sweetly as her gentle voice flowed onto the sphere.

"Hi Gippal! It's Keimyn again. Sorry...I kinda forgot ta' tell you where I am. Can't come for me if ya don't know where I am huh?" she giggled as she moved her sphere to her environment. Waters stretched out far, sparkling under the large, bright sun. She apparently was on an island, a very green one at that. No buildings were around her, so everyone assumed she was far away from the island's city.

"There ya go. Well, it's called Saiba Island. Kinda boring looking, huh? Well that's why I keep sending you these spheres! Hurry and come get me! Love you!" The sphere shut off, leaving the six friends speechless.

"Who..." was all Paine could say.

"Keimyn?" Nooj asked. "Hey Baralai. Do you think..." Nooj leaned closer to Baralai, whispering the rest of his sentence. "Keimyn's some girl he's with now?"

Baralai's eyes chased around. "Well, we know Gippal...he'll take the next pretty girl if he can't have-"

"OH! I need to call Tidus if we're going to Saiba!" Yuna loudly interrupted. Buddy laughed.

"We're really going to Saiba?"

Yuna gave Buddy an 'of-course-are-Gippal's-going-there-and-Rikku's-with-him-HELLO!' look.

"Saiba's in another _world_." Buddy traced a sphere in the air.

"Well, are we gonna just leave Rikku? C'mon!" Yuna pleaded.

"She has a point." Brother defended.

"...Okay, but I ain't driving anymore." Buddy whined. The group looked around at each other, searching for a pilot. Eventually, everyone stared at Brother.

"No way. I have been driving for three years straight!" he protested, waving his arms around.

Baralai stood from his seat.

"I've...always wanted to pilot an airship."

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"...zzz..."

"Tidus, it's Yuna!"

"...zzZZzz..."

Yuna smiled on at her boyfriend as he slept on, assuming he's been up playing blitzball last night. However, in order to talk to him, she would need to wake him up...and she knew just how to do it.

Yuna lifted her fingers to her mouth, blowing against them and emitting a high pitched whistle. All that time spent practicing for him paid off- Tidus woke suddenly, noticing Yuna in the CommSphere and running to her.

"You can whistle!" he laughed, returning hers with his own whistle and a yawn.

"You came..." she smiled warmly. She had always hoped when he was gone that her would come when she whistled. After so long of getting no response, when he finally came, she was overjoyed.

"Of course. How are you? D'ya find Rikku?"

Yuna's smile faded at her cousin's name. "Well...it turns out she really is missing. She's with Gippal, and they're going to Saiba Island."

Tidus furrowed his brow. Saiba Island? "Where...why...-"

"I don't know. Something about picking up this Al Bhed girl Keimyn, I think. I don't have a clue why...Saiba Island's in a whole different _world_."

Tidus only sat still, his mouth gaping.

"So I'm..._we're_ going to Saiba. We need to get Rikku."

Tidus nodded in agreement. "Should I...go with you?"

"I think it's best you and Wakka stay, in case Rikku tries to reach you there. Plus, Wakka and Lulu should probably be with Vidina."

Tidus lowered his head, hiding the worry in his eyes.

"Yeah...okay. Just- just be careful. I love you."

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"Okay there, Cid's girl?"

Rikku finished up wrapping her arm, grimacing in pain.

"I have. A name." she said through gritted teeth.

"Whoa there. Sorry _Rikku_." Gippal laughed.

The two Al Bheds drifted around on hovers, avoiding what they needed to say. Rikku yawned widely, twirling her haid and nodding off. Gippal conceded defeat.

"I guess we need to stop somewhere to sleep, eh?" he awkwardly asked, looking around the forests behind Djose for a clearing. He saw a small abandoned road nearby and led Rikku its direction.

"You got any tents? Cuz I definitely don't..." Rikku trailed off once they reached the site. Gippal looked through his inventory, knowing that he only had enough for one.

"Listen, Cid's- _Rikku_, just take mine. You've been through enough crap today." Gippal brushed his hand through his hair. Spying a log nearby, he lifted it and set it by Rikku's tent, leaning against it and crossing his arms. Rikku walked up to him slowly.

"You sure you're gonna sleep on a log?"

Gippal yawned. "Yeah, no problem. Did it all the time when I was younger."

Rikku leaned to him and tussled his hair. "Thanks Gippal." she yawned again, as if it was contagious. She walked to her tent and unzipped the opening. "Oui'na ysywehk." (You're amazing).

Gippal smiled a little once she turned around and went inside.

_'You are too, Rikku.'_

Gippal leaned against the log, attempting to finally fall asleep. He reflected on his day, and how insane his arrival had been.

_'Hoo boy. Who would've thought my coming back to Spira would bring all this crap? All I wanted was to come see Rikku for a hover, then fly out to Keimyn. She's been waiting there long enough, s'about time I came and got her. I just hope that she'll be okay, y'know, coming to Spira with me. But that's another thing, what about Rikku?' _Gippal turned uncomfortably to his other side._ 'She's gonna want to come with me, what am I gonna tell her? I can stick with the machina part thing, I guess. Yeah, that's a pretty damn good lie right there. Let's just hope she buys it...let's just hope she won't find out about Keimyn, too. Last thing I want is for her to hate me...'_

------

Gippal awoke to the bright Djose sun, the birds chirping and no fiends around to attack. He smelled the fresh scent of morning breakfast- something he hadn't had since his mom was around. Gippal wanted so badly to return back to sleep, but that wonderful smell played with his senses, taunting him its direction.

"Hey cmaabo rayt!" (Hey sleepy head!) Rikku chirped once she saw Gippal rise. Gippal tried to fight back a smile when he saw her in all her matronly glory. She wore a lond pink apron complete with pink ruffles along the edges (Who would've thought people still wore those?), quite odd looking since she only had on her bikini/skirt combo thief dressphere underneath.

"What made you wanna cook me breakfast?" Gippal joked. Rikku rolled her eyes and shoved a plate into his chest.

"Well it's not like you'd wake up any other way." Gippal chuckled as he lifted the spoon to his mouth, looking at the food suspiciously.

"I hope I'm not gonna need an antidote after I eat this." he joked as he shoved the spoonful into his mouth. Rikku mock-gasped after he swallowed.

"OH CRAP! I forgot I was supposed to remove the poison from that stinger before I grounded it!"

Gippal stopped chewing right away and coughed continuously, Rikku in front of him happily eating her own food.

"You're so gullible! C'mon, I put in some frozen antidote to null the poison." she continued to tease with a full mouth. Gippal rolled his eyes but smiled, continuing with his breakfast.

"Keep those antics up and you could have your own spherecast."

"No way! You're a genious!" Rikku jumped up from the ground and ran towards their hovers.

"What else is new..." Gippal said to himself. He spotted Rikku digging through his hover's inventory, examining every sphere he had so she could make her own travel journal.

"Whoa whoa whoa! Cid's girl!" Gippal jumped up, dropping his plate on the floor and running to Rikku, her shouts of _'I have a name!'_ oblivious to him. She only looked up innocently at him as he reached over her shoulders to take his spheres, his face almost touching the side of hers.

"What are you doing?" she asked him innocently. Gippal noticed their closeness and quickly stood, returning his spheres to his inventory and wiping the dirt from his knees.

"You can't just dig through my..._people's_ stuff like that. There may be some personal stuff in there!" Rikku squinted at him, her mouth at the ready to give him all she's got.

"Oh? Like spheres from your newest girlfriend or something? Since when have you cared about me knowing about your women, huh? Why don't you just flaunt it like always?!" she shouted, her arms flailing as she stood in front of him, staring up at him with an intense eye. Gippal gaped at her.

"Rikku! No, be quiet, calm down! You're overreacting!" Rikku looked at him half sadly, half angrily. She looked as if she were going to cry.

"So you wanna tell me what's going on?"

"Nothing, Rikku. I'm just tired. _I_ overreacted, I'm sorry." he replied, extending his arm out for her to shake his hand and accept his apology. Rikku looked at his hand, then at his face. He _did_ seem truly sorry...even though she was still suspicious of him.

"Fine. Just promise me on your duty as Machine Faction leader and co-Spiran ruler that you won't ever be such a grumpy pants in the morning again, especially to me, butthead." Rikku said as she slapped the palm of his extended hand.

"I, Gippal, promise unto thee Rikku, under my authority as Machine Faction leader and co-Spiran ruler, that I will never be such a grumpy pants in the morning again, especially to thee." Gippal joked as he watched her go back into her tent. He turned around, rubbing his hand that Rikku had hit as hard as she could, and walked back to his log.

_'Too bad I don't rule anything.'_

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_"Damned teenagers these days. Some nerve those youngsters have, kickin' me outta my Bikanel. Who do they think they are, the Maester? Tellin' me _'It's time for you to go, gramps, we rule this place now.' _First of all, I ain't no gramps. Second, I'll be darned if I let them hooligans rule my place. And if yer gonna send me somewhere, at least send me somewhere that ain't this borin'. Look at this island, there ain't anythin' here to do! No cities, no blitzball, no spheres, nothin'! Just straight, flat green, and a hell of a lotta water. At least I know I ain't gonna die of thirst. Wonder where that daughter of mine is. Probably off galavantin' all over Spira doin' some _'adventuring!'_ or somethin' worthless like that. That girl's saved Spira twice already, about time she just settle down a little. Well maybe she'll notice her ol' Pops is gone and come adventurin' herself on over 'ta get me. As long as she ain't preoccupyin' herself with that Gippal kid anywho."_


	7. Any Sholushuns?

**So it's been a few months...sorry about that everyone, if I still do have readers that is. Now that school's over I should be updating more often.  
I was up until 2 in the morning finishing this, because my plot bunny threatened to hop away if I went to sleep. So let's hope this one is okay.  
Any suggestions on how to better the story is highly appreciated!  
So finally, Chapter 7!**  
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"Baralai."

Sitting in the pilot seat of the Celsius, confused as a chocobo, but determined, nonetheless, sat the young Praetor, eager to start flying. Brother, however, being the control freak he is, demanded he sit in Buddy's seat, so he could take over if needed. But after Brother's straight half-hour lecture on everything piloting, Baralai may very well have been his generations' Cid. Now Brother was just trying to convince him to back out.

"Baralai." the skiddish Al Bhed repeated, trying to cover his insecurity with attempting to be nonchalant. Baralai, however, only pulled out his pilot mask from his inventory and slid them over his eager eyes.

"Wow. This is a side of Baralai I've never seen." Paine remarked in her usual cool voice while failing to hide a smirk. Yuna couldn't help but giggle as Baralai looked over his shoulder and gave her a thumbs up, showing off his brown aviator gloves.

"Ahem!" Brother mock-coughed, unsurprisingly jealous at the interaction between Baralai and Yuna. Baralai looked over at him, his smile as wide as the beaches of Besaid, his gloved hands firmly gripping the wheel.

"You uh, may need to put the keys in the ignition, yes?" Brother said again in his faux-nonchalant tone. Baralai's smile diminished to a smirk.

"But I've already put it in the ignition, see?" Baralai arched his back so Brother could see the keys in the lock.

"Hey Baralai, that's the glove box." Buddy commented from his seat at Shinra's station. "The ignition is on the left side."

Baralai sheepishly pulled out the keys and put them in the ignition, Nooj howling with laughter in the background.

"Hey! You think that's funny, Mr. I-Don't-Know-How-To-Activate-A-Voice-Activated-Hover!" Paine retorted, instantly halting Nooj's laughter as he slunk over to the chair by Buddy.

The ship gained turbulence as Baralai turned the ignition, his foot tapping anxiously at the pedal.

"Now, Baralai, don't press the pedal too hard, or-"

Ignoring him, Baralai slammed on the pedal, the ship speeding from 0 to 60 in a split second, knocking anyone who was standing to the floor. Luckily there was nothing loose on the bridge, or that would have been _really_ bad.

"-or you'll knock everyone over." Buddy laughed at the Yevonite, who had eyes as large as Anima's.

"Everyone alright?" Nooj asked, clinging onto his chair as he attempted to climb back on. The others only grumbled as they slowly stood to their feet.

"Oh wow, look outside!" Yuna exclaimed, running over to the windows up front. The clouds were just below them, parted slightly to allow vision of the places below. They could see the tip of the Travel Agency glowing brightly, the shoopufs carrying passengers to the other side, and even a small speck running frantically in circles which they were pretty sure was Tobli. Nooj and Buddy got bored of watching after a while and left, leaving Yuna and Paine there until the clouds cut off their view.

"Brings back good memories, huh?" Yuna smiled as she walked away from the window. "It's been so long since I've been here that I forgot how beautiful the view was."

Everyone stayed silent for a while, trying to figure out what to do until they reached Saiba. Brother kept throwing anxious glares at the child-like Baralai, who, though he'd never admit it, was piloting pretty well. Buddy messed around with Shinra's computer while Nooj brushed up on his sphere break skills, albeit slowly. However the silence was finally broken when Buddy brought up information on Saiba.

"Saiba Island, located in the world of Edyne, world of...criminal exile?" Buddy leaned towards the screen to double check the words he just read. "It says here that criminals from every world are sent to Edyne, and can only leave when proven innocent. An impenetrable invisible shield surrounds the world so no one can try to escape before trial..." Buddy trailed off, scrolling down the page, his eyes never leaving the screen.

"A...criminal island?" Paine asked in disbelief, walking over to Buddy with her hand to her face. "So some girl named Keimyn that nobody even knows wants Gippal to come get her from Saiba. Are we missing something?"

"More like are we not missing anything?" Nooj half-sarcastically remarked, his hands massaging his temples. Yuna stayed seated, determined to know more.

"Does it say anything about Saiba, Buddy?" Buddy typed on the keyboard, waiting for the search results to come up.

"Saiba Island, an island in the world of Edyne, blah blah blah..." he trailed off again, skimming for better information. "Oh! At Saiba, those accused await their trial on the flat greens, surrounded by water all around."

"That's...odd." Baralai turned his attention momentarily to Nooj, his uncharacteristic childlike attitude changing into a more businesslike, thoughtful one.

"HEY PRAETOR BOY, HANDS ON THE WHEEL!" Brother shouted, Baralai freaking out and frantically grabbing at the wheel.

Despite the silent, curious air of the bridge, Nooj let out a small chuckle.

"Looks like lover boy's falling for a criminal!"

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The morning was still fresh after Rikku's and Gippal's 'fight' in the forests of Djose. The bright sun shone through the scattered trees so brightly, you'd forget that not far away was a lightning-based temple. The breeze as well was just as amazing as it was in Besaid, leaving Rikku with the desire to tear off on her hover. However, just as she was starting towards it, Gippal jumped in front of her.

"Going somewhere?" he teased with that same cocky voice paired with the same cocky stance Rikku's known for so long.

"Maybe. What's it to ya?" she teased back, rolling her eyes and slightly pushing his shoulders. Gippal retaliated by ruffling her braided hair, causing her to squeal in protest and attempt to get away.

"_I_ am hungry, so I'm gonna get some food. _You_ should stay and watch the stuff."

Great. Now he's treating her like some housewife.

"But I just cooked breakfast! How could you possibly be hungry already?"

"Yeah, you cooked a breakfast I never even got to eat! You made me drop it after like one bite, remember?" He pointed to the overturned plate on the ground. Rikku rolled her eyes again, partly from her frustration at failing to fix her hair.

"Fine, go, but not on my hover!"

Gippal smirked, fixing a strand of hair she missed and patting her on the head. "Nice try, _Cid's girl_," he mocked, ignoring her scowl at the unwanted nickname, "but your hover is over there, by _your_ tent, this one is _mine_."

"I think I know _my_ hover when I see it!" Rikku retaliated, trying to pull it away from him. However he only laughed and pryed off her fingers, jumping onto the hover and speeding away before she could grab at it again. Rikku crossed her arms and blew away a strand of her bangs in front of her eye.

"Guess I should check all my spheres, if that really is my hover, since I'm stuck here alone...pimmo." (bully). Leisurely, she walked to the hover. As she reached it, she noticed that the sphere compartment wouldn't open easily.

"That's...weird. It was fine a second ago." she said through gritted teeth, trying to pry the door open. "What. The heck. Is going-" Suddenly the door unhinged, and out poured more than a dozen red spheres, each with a different symbol representing its weapon. Rikku smiled widely, shuffling through all the new spheres.

"I told you that was my hover, Gippal!" she deviously whispered to herself, picking out a sphere she wanted to see. She'd never seen a dressphere like the one she was looking at before. It was like an overweight suit of armor in green, wielding a huge axe that looked too big for even Auron himself. No wonder Gippal never changed dresspheres...

After a while of shuffling mindlessly through what seemed like the hundredth useless dressphere, Rikku finally came across one that actually looked acceptable. The weapon reminded her of Gippal's, only it was a little shorter with three bullet holes. The outfit, red to match the weapon, reminded her of a mix of Gippal's dressphere and her Alchemist one. Basically, it looked like a lower level of Gippal's dressphere, like he used it before Sin's renewal. Intrigued, she decided to try it on.

A red flash of light engulfed her, flames surrounging her every inch as she transitioned between spheres. But almost as soon as the surroundings came, they disappeared, leaving Rikku in the finished results.

"Hm. Gippal sure was a thin one back then!" she joked, noting the fact that it was hardly loose at all. She walked around a while with his weapon, aiming at trees and fighting fake battles. In the middle of her third 'fight' with Ultima Weapon, she heard the unmistakable sound of a hover off in the distance.

"Ohhh!! If Gippal sees me in this he'll kill me for sure!!" she squeaked, running around in search of her thief dressphere. By the time she found it, though, Gippal was hovering behind a tree behind her, soaking in all the humor.

"Haha, Cid's girl...you never fail to make me laugh..." he said to himself, making sure to hide well. He continued to stay there unnoticed until she finally switched spheres.

"About time. Though I must say, you were lookin' pretty good in my old dressphere." he shouted on his way down. Rikku startled at his voice, hurling his sphere at him in defense. It came dangerously close to hitting him, and he caught it behind his head, nearly falling off the hover in the process. Rikku gasped and covered her mouth, but started laughing anyway. Gippal chucked it back at her, but she only caught it and ran back to his hover.

"I told you you had _my _hover!" she taunted, putting his spheres back in the compartment. Gippal sighed loudly and walked over to his log, leaning against it with his elbow on top.

"So is that what you did the whole time, try on my dresspheres?" he joked, making himself as comfortable as he could on a log. Rikku mock-smiled and put the hover by the tent.

"Just that one, you didn't really _have_ that many good ones. I could kick your butt at battle any time with _those_." she challenged, pointing at his spheres and making a gun with her fingers, 'shooting' them with a closed eye.

"Ha! Are you trying to mock me _and_ challenge me? 'Cuz you're in WAY over your head, Cid's girl." Gippal stood up and made gestures like he was about to fight her.

"Maybe I am!" she went up to him and prodded his forehead, making him blink everytime. "You. Me. Hover race. First one to the bridge on the other side wins. If I win, you stop calling me Cid's girl. Deal?"

"Fine with me." he replied, pushing her finger away. "But if I win, I get the tent tonight."

"Gippal! That's not fair! It's not balanced enough!" she objected, still remaining quite close.

"Well, I guess you'll just have to win then, **_Cid's girl_**." he rebutted with even more emphasis on the name. The two stared at each other, competitiveness flowing in their eyes, as if they were fighting telekinetically. After a while they broke out into smiles and raced to their own hovers.

"What's the weather like down there, Cid's girl?" Gippal shouted from the air while Rikku was still running to her hover.

"You'll have to tell me tonight when you sleep out here, _all alone_!" she shouted back, shooting towards him and starting the race.

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"So what happened in that 'vision' of yours, Paine?"

Up to that point, the crew had been mindlessly hanging around the ship, doing anything they could to save themselves from complete boredom. Brother had long given up his attempt to salvage the wheel from Baralai, and instead moved on to actually practicing his Spiran (most likely because he _knew_ mastering a foreign language would woo Yuna into leaving Tidus for him). Buddy and Nooj were still sitting at Shinra's old computer station, reading through some of his memoirs he apparantly forgot to delete...

"No man, listen to this, it's freakin' hilarious; Friday, March 11th. We went to Besaid today for a reason I'm not really sure of. Apparantly though it was a big thing for Yuna seeing as how she hasn't been there in a while. Her and that Black Mage- Lulu I think- were together for so long talking about baby stuff. I don't know how girls can talk forever about the most pointless stuff, like clothes and...I don't know, cute stuff? Ugh, I shudder at the _word _cute. But I guess it's no different with Brother walking around all day, talking about how impressed Yuna will be when he masters Spiran and takes her on a 'dah-tay', which I think means 'date' but you never know with him..."

At the mention of this, Brother hurled the Spiran book at Buddy and nearly cussed him out in Al Bhed, if Yuna (who spoke fluently by now) wasn't right next to him.

Paine and Yuna sat on the second floor of the bridge leading to the elevator (you know, the one they _always_ jump off of) watching some old spheres from the Gullwings.

Poor Baralai looked like he was about to die of boredom at the wheel, not even bothering to hold onto it since he didn't even change direction in the past hour.

All of this led to the question everyone had wanted to ask, but Nooj was the only one to remember, about Paine's vision.

So what was in this...vision?

"Well, the only thing I saw was Rikku on her hover, in a White Mage dressphere of all things." she paused a moment to recall all of the events. "She was with Gippal, I'm pretty sure, because they kept teasing each other."

"What did they say?"

"Well, the first thing I heard was her saying 'Stop looking at me!', but I couldn't see anything then." she recalled, rubbing the side of her head. "Then Gippal said, 'How could I? You're all covered up!', but I only heard that, too..." the bridge was silent as everyone tried to piece together the puzzle. "Oh, but the last thing was her saying, 'And I'm going to stay that way, oui pimmo!' (you bully!). "But that time I saw her as she said it..."

"What was she doing?"

"She saw a spot of blood on her sleeve and winced a little as she wrapped it up. That was it."

Still silence.

"Why is it Paine couldn't see her until the end?" Baralai asked from his seat, his mind clearly off piloting. His question went unanswered when nobody could think of anything.

"Paine, you said you had a flashback back at the beds, right?" Brother asked a thought filled Paine, who merely nodded in his direction.

"So? What did you see then?"

Paine sat slightly open-mouthed, thinking back to just a while ago. "It was...like a really fast slideshow...like you blink and you miss it. Only the memories weren't so good..." Yuna sat up straighter, recalling that she also experienced what Paine had.

"Every single image I saw was of Rikku. But...all of them were of her in battle...getting, well...hurt. It started out small, but gradually got worse, like seeing our fight with you guys in the Den of Woe, the fight with Trema...I even saw her out of health at the Angra Mainyu fight, laying on the ground..." Paine took a long, deep sigh, trying to get herself to move on. "The last I saw was of her lying on a bunch of rocks...completely unconscious. It scared the Farplane out of me, for a split second I was sure she was dead." She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes, trying not to lose her mind.

"I..." was all Buddy could say. Brother wouldn't even move- the thought of his eighteen year old kid sister being dead was too much for him to even think about.

"Guys, it happened to me too, back at Besaid." Yuna spoke up, though her eyes remained on the sphere she was playing with. Everyone tiredly focused their attention towards her. "Only, I didn't see Rikku in battle, or even, well, dead in battle. It's weird...I saw her in fewer, longer memories, like a spherecast or something. The first one was from when we were kids, and she found out that her dad had to go to Luca on her birthday. Then I saw when she found out her mom died...that was really hard to see. Then at school when she saw Gippal flirting with her friend...a bunch of high school stuff...and then her lying across the rocks like Paine saw..." she covered her eyes with her hands.

"So you both saw the same incidient, but different memories?" Buddy asked again, turning to the computer but realizing that it couldn't help him now.

"We both saw it then. How come it was only me that saw her on the hover?" Paine asked with obvious frustration at the small progression. The bridge was silent for a good three minutes, not including Nooj's 'I need a vacation' near the beginning.

The automatic door behind the two girls swooshed open, and there stood Barkeep, looking like he'd been there for a while.

"I thinksh I may haf a sholushun!"

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Back at Bikanel, the sun was shining as brightly as ever, the heat as scorching as it was that fateful night three years ago when everything fell apart. Although it was hot, it was nothing the Al Bheds weren't used to, and they continued to build as much as ever. Though this time, nobody even spared a thought at continuing the efforts to build Home. Instead it seemed like every single person was working on a different machina, except none of them were finished. Workers would walk away from their projects and move onto something new without even a second thought. If Cid were here...

"Najahka." came a voice from inside the leader's station. A man slightly on the short side but still physically fit came running down the hallway, looking through every open door to find his leader. His unkempt black hair looked moppy, obviously he'd woken up in a rush. He was a sight to see, his black and gray layered clothes paired with his temple-to-cheekbone tattoo symbol and messy hair made even Najahka smirk.

"What is it, Hyeja?" Najahka asked impatiently, turning away from the panting man to peer through the window at his workers.

"Cunno, cen, pid-" (Sorry, sir, but-) he sighed, shaking his head and instead trying to speak in Spiran. "Ihcina is still in Djose, she said she had...important business to take care of." he stopped and waited for Najahka's reply, but after a momnet of silence he pressed forward. "I remained at the Moonflow as ordered, and after a while I finally saw the aircraft leave."

Najahka turned slightly to his side, unblocking the sun in the window and creating a glare to where Ihcina couldn't see. "Did you track it as ordered?" he asked intimidatingly but with a trace of anxiousness. Hyeja nodded and shaded his eyes from the glare.

"I got report that they are headed away from Spira, to the world border."

Najahka smiled villaniously and turned completely around to face Hyeja, blocking the light again. "And the old man?"

"At Saiba as we speak, sir."

"Aqlammahd..." (Excellent...) Najahka nearly whispered. Hyeja remained in the room.

"Ah, sir? May I ask why we need to send the old guy so far away?"

Najahka's smile faded at the thought of the man's connections. "Because he knows Gippal, Hyeja. I want that punk to suffer as much as I have..." Hyeja stared blankly for a moment before Najahka proceeded on. "I will make not only his life miserable, but also the lives of those he loves, all to avenge my brother!"

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It had been a while since the race had started, and the bright Djose morning had turned to a dimmer afternoon. The bridge was not far off, only a forest away, but Gippal was ahead quite a bit, and Rikku was losing energy and speed. Gippal, surprisingly, was feeling a little guilty for taking her hover before.

"I _did_ get a jump start on her." he said to himself when he knew he was out of her earshot. "But I really want that tent tonight, I can't stand those damned bugs anymore. And the whole 'drop the Cid's girl' thing?" He mulled over his thoughts some more, before turning to check that she couldn't see him and shooting down to the middle of the forest.

However, Rikku did see him.

"Ooohh! Who does he think he is?" she shouted, then covering her mouth when she realized her volume. "I could have won fair and-"

Her thoughts were interrupted as she looked below her at a spot in the forest that was oddly shining, even in the afternoon. Knowing this wouldn't affect the race, she floated down into the light.

"What is this...?" she said after finally spotting an orange sphere slightly covered in dirt, lying in the distance.

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**Yes, yes, y-e-s. Chapter 7! Be honest with me in the reviews, okay? And I'll give review replies from now on, because it's the polite thing to do for anyone who took time to read this :D.**


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